Tiger Woods’s Attorneys File Counterclaim Against Ex-Girlfriend Erica Herman
Two days after his former girlfriend filed a complaint asking a Florida court to remove a nondisclosure agreement, Tiger Woods filed a motion to intervene in the case of Erica Herman v. Jupiter Island Irrevocable Homestead Trust, according to court documents obtained by Sports Illustrated. The motion was filed in the Circuit Court of Martin County, Fla.
The trust is a legal entity that controls Woods’s primary residence in Jupiter, Fla. Woods and his two children, Samantha and Charlie, are the sole beneficiaries of the trust.
In a separate complaint filed by Herman on Oct. 26, 2022, Herman claimed that the trust had in place an oral tenancy agreement with an agent of Woods’s trust to reside on the property. In turn Herman performed valuable services at Woods’s request. According to the complaint, the agreement provided Herman the right to live in the residence for a certain duration of time with all expenses paid by Woods.
The complaint stated: “The duties that were performed by, and expected of, Plaintiff [Herman] were extensive and of an extraordinary nature in light of the overall circumstances and environment in which she lived.”
Herman claimed she performed the services for six years, and the agreement had another five years remaining.
Woods, in filing the motion to intervene, is attempting to be an additional party in the complaint against the trust, and according to his motion is hoping to push the dispute out of circuit court and into an arbitration proceeding that Woods began on Dec. 22, 2022.
As part of Woods’s claims in the arbitration proceedings, he asks that he, and not the trust, be allowed to litigate Herman’s outstanding claims.
Those claims include:
- That Herman has no right to occupy the residence in question and is not entitled to monetary damages against Woods or the Trust for breach of the alleged oral tenancy agreement.
- That Herman is not entitled to damages arising from the removal of her personal belongings from the residence or the alleged misappropriation of $40,000 cash.
On Jan. 26, the arbitration proceeding was temporarily suspended after Herman invoked a recently passed federal law, the Speak Out Act, that protects individuals from sexual assault and sexual harassment.
In his counterclaim, Woods admits to a romantic relationship with Herman and shortly after they began dating they entered into an NDA dated Aug. 9, 2017. During the relationship, Woods invited Herman to live with him as his guest at the residence.
On Oct. 13, 2022, Woods says he notified Herman he was breaking off their relationship and that she would no longer be welcome in the residence.
Herman filed a complaint 13 days later asking for damages of more than $30 million for breach of the oral tenancy agreement.
In neither the complaint filed against the trust nor the complaint for declaratory judgment to invalidate the NDA, does Herman make any accusations of sexual harassment or sexual assault by Woods or anyone else.